Ethnic and National Identity Theories of development and change

Table of contents The characteristics of ethnicity What ethnicity is not Immigration and cultural change

Definitions: Little agreement 27 different definitions (Isajiw, 1974) Many different meanings (Burkey, 1978) A cultural group An ancestral group A racial group A minority group An immigrant group Any group that wears colorful clothes People unlike ourselves (Banks & Gay, 1978)

Definitions Ethnic group: A social collective made up of people who are defined as sharing important cultural, physical, or ancestral attributes (Jaret) Ethnicity: Properties of either an ethnic group as a whole or of individual members of an ethnic group, including customs, language, religion, and political and economic interests.

Ethnicity is not race Ethnic groups can be racial sub-categories From C. Jaret’s Contemporary Racial and Ethnic Relations Ethnic groups can be racial sub-categories Racial groups can be ethnic sub-categories Racial and ethnic groups are two kinds of groups

Ethnicity is not nationality/state A nation is a large body of people, associated with a particular territory, that is sufficiently conscious of its unity to seek or to possess a government peculiarly its own (dictionary.com) A state is a territory of an [independent and autonomous] government (dictionary.com)

Ethnicity is not religion From 2001 study of U.S. congregations called "Faith Communities Today” by Hartford Seminary's Hartford Institute for Religious Research

Central characteristics of ethnicity Peoplehood Culture Territoriality Ethnocentrism Ascribed membership (Essentialism)

Peoplehood Refers to a special feeling of attachment to other group members Can have many origins Shared ancestry Shared sense of victimization Shared aspirations Can be local or cross-national Fixed or flexible?

Culture Definitions (again) vary Institutional behavioral patterns Language Family roles and interaction styles Food Religion Celebrations and traditions Style and appearance Basic or core values Human nature (good – neutral – evil) Time (past – present – future) Relationship between people (individualistic – collectivistic)

Ethnocentrism A point of view in which one’s own group is the center of everything. Tendency to judge other groups by the standards of one’s own group Opposite of multiculturalism Has two outcomes in-group cohesiveness out-group antagonism

Essence Question 1 GilWhite, F., Astuti, R., Atran, S., Banton, M., Boyer, P., Gelman, S. A., ... & Laitin, D. D. (2001). Are ethnic groups biological “species” to the human brain? Essentialism in our cognition of some social categories. Current anthropology, 42(4), 515-553.

Essence Question 2

Essence Question 3

Descent often seen as necessary and sufficient Sample size = 41 Order of questions is randomized GilWhite, F., Astuti, R., Atran, S., Banton, M., Boyer, P., Gelman, S. A., ... & Laitin, D. D. (2001). Are ethnic groups biological “species” to the human brain? Essentialism in our cognition of some social categories. Current anthropology, 42(4), 515-553.

Ethnic Group? Jews African Americans

Jews Sense of peoplehood Shared culture (e.g., religion, food, holidays, Hebrew/Yiddish language) Shared connection to specific geographic territory (Israel) Have sovereignty (in Israel) Ethnocentrism Essentialism: Jewish law (Halakha) specifies rules of descent

African Americans Sense of peoplehood (complicated) No: Ancestors from different tribes from different parts of Africa Maybe: Some feel a connection to Africa, or West Africa Yes: History of racialization has created sense of peoplehood Shared culture (sort of) lots of within-group diversity substantial overlap with mainstream culture (e.g., language) Shared connection to specific geographic territory (No: most do not want to live in Africa Have or want sovereignty (No)

How do people reconcile multiple identities? Are some identities more important than others? Do some identities have a different meaning than others? Does the country of residence influence ethnic identity (for members of the same ethnic group)?

Building a Diaspora: Russian Jews in Israel, Germany and the USA Brill Press Olaf Glockner (historian) Eliezer Ben-Rafael (sociologist) Paul Harris (political scientist)

Are some identities more important? What are you in the first place? American Israeli German What are you in the second place? What are you in the third place? American Israeli German American Israeli German

The meaning of identity (U.S. data)

The meaning of identity: host culture

Feeling part of host culture (peoplehood)

Peoplehood as function of time in host country 0=not at all 1=a little 2=moderately 3=extremely

Identification with host culture

How do people reconcile multiple identities? Are some identities more important than others? Do some identities have a different meaning than others? Does the country of residence influence ethnic identity (for members of the same ethnic group)? Next lecture: Acculturation and cultural acquisition